Whats your workout doing for you?

When I work out, I have a couple of goals in mind. One of course is to build strength, which is a three pronged attack. The first goal of progressive resistance is to build strength and balance. The second should always be cardiovascular training. The third should be flexibility. Now if you're like me, when you first heard this you first question is why do I need flexibility, or balance and why do I need balance?




Well strength without flexibility is nothing. If you can’t stretch and extend your strength isn’t usable. Your workout should incorporate stretching. In order to build or tone your muscles you need to stretch them. All workouts should start with a stretching of the muscles you intend to work out, however they should also be stretched during the workout. This allows for more growth of those muscles.



In order to use strength, you need to have balance. A wrestler can be strong as an ox, but without balance, he would be as clumsy as one. An effective athlete will have the combination of both. After watching the Olympics these past couple of weeks, I’ve been reminded that best athlete is not necessarily the strongest, and not always the fastest, not always the smartest. However if you possess a good balance of all three, you're going to find that you’re going to have a fair level of success in your athletic endeavors.



Cardiovascular health is most possible the most important prong. If you have strength, without conditioning you may look in shape, but you aren’t. Again the strength isn’t usable. Your workout should always include improving your cardiovascular system and respiratory system. This can be done to a small degree during your workout, it’s also important to include a good portion of cardiovascular work either before or after your workout. The time that is best for cardio, depends on the goal you have for your workout.

So in your next workout, check yourself and make sure you're attacking them from all three fronts.  Next we'll dicuss what your other goals of your workout should be.  I think you'll be surprized.